Kanye West’s Tour Provokes with Jesus and Confederate Flag Imagery

Kanye West loves to provoke people. That much is clear.

His tour in support of his latest record, the critically-acclaimed Yeezus, features rather dark merchandise emblazoned with skeletons, Confederate flags, and praying Native Americans. The AV Club posted a photo from the Yeezus merch table, showing tote bags with the Confederate flag and a tee shirt with a Native American skeleton, captioned “God Wants You.”

Other provocative items in the merch stable include a shirt with the skeletal Angel of Death draped in a Confederate flag patterned cloak:

Here’s a closer look at the aforementioned “God Wants You” shirt:

The tour itself features a mammoth production, with West at times ascending and descending a giant mountain to deliver his epic raps. He also has 12 dancing “apostles” join him on-stage at certain points, along with an actor playing Jesus.

None of this should come as a surprise to those familiar with West’s Yeezus album, which features a sonically dark production aesthetic, heavy industrial beats, and tackles themes of slavery, segregation, racism, materialism, and stereotypes about black Americans.

[h/t AV Club]

— —
>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!